ΚΑΛΙΞ - Werewolf in Greece

Lonely Werewolf Girl has now been published in Greece, by Kedros, as ΚΑΛΙΞ  Η  ΓΥΝΑΙΚΑ  ΛΥΚΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΣ. Which would translate as Kalix the Werewolf Woman. Or, Kalix, Female Werewolf, I suppose. So I'm pleased to have Kalix venturing into new territory.

London is pleasantly warm and sunny and I've been wandering around in shorts and a Led Zeppelin t-shirt, probably looking ridiculous. Last summer I got a slight tan on my legs, and was quite excited by this rare occurrence. I'm always quite pale.

I'm still enjoying Dollhouse, now up to episode six here. Last night there were new revelations in the plot, and Eliza Dushku had this great fight with the FBI agent. But, as I predicted, no one else I know is watching this programme here, it being rather hidden away on the SciFi channel.

I bought the fantasy stamps, as mentioned in my last blog. They're good stamps. (but what will I ever do with them?)

Stamps / Germany

I don't think I've ever bought any special stamps before. My personal history is entirely stamp-collecting-free. But I did just notice these, advertised for release today. Mythical stamps from the Royal Mail. Featuring fairies, dragons, and other things. I would quite like to have these stamps.



Hmm. How high up the geekiness scale would it be to buy a sheet of stamps because they feature fairies and pixies? Quite high up, I imagine. Well, I'd still like them. Examination of the Royal Mail website reveals that there's a presentation pack with writing in it, by Neil Gaiman. I will investigate in the local post office, and see if they have them.

Lonely Werewolf Girl has now been published in Germany, by Fischer, under the title of Kalix. Werwölfin von London. Here it is at the publisher's website and at amazon.de.

I have a few copies of this book. I'll sign one of these and give it away free to the first person from Germany to say they want it. Just leave a reply here, and then email me your address.

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na

Am shuffling round in kitchen, making pot of tea. Put on sport radio channel. Distressed to find them talking about 'Britain's Got Talent.' I don't want to hear about this, I want to hear about football. Change to Radio 5. But they are also talking about 'Britain's Got Talent.' There seems to be no escape. I have no interest in this topic. Why is it everywhere? What's wrong with these people? Argh. Even the most assiduous efforts to ignore it seem doomed to fail, you just can't click on a news website or turn on the radio but someone's talking about it. Argh... kill, smash. There, you've made me mention your damned programme. Are you happy now?

Now in bad mood with modern world, retreat to Cozy Powell in 1974. 'Na na na na (na na na na na) which contains the lyrics -

I know you get your kicks playing Hendrix licks
You're the wizard of Wembley Central
You're the J.S. Bach of Belsize Park
But me I'm just plain mental.

Who wrote this lyric? I mean, it's genius.

I've now seen three episodes of Dollhouse, and am still reasonably enthusiastic. I do like Eliza Dushku. Also, a new season of House just started here. It's a relief to find some TV programmes I want to watch, because I need excuses not to got on with writing, and I don't seem to have any new Playstation games at the moment. Maybe I should play through Tomb Raider Underworld again. I enjoyed that.

And now, I have my polling card, so I'm off to vote in the European Election.

A New British Edition of Lonely Werewolf Girl

Here's the cover for Piatkus's edition of Lonely Werewolf Girl, due to be released in Britain in October, I think. I like this cover a lot. Meanwhile I'm working away on the sequel, which is due to be released next year.

I watched the first episode of Dollhouse and I enjoyed it. I wasn't sure if I'd like it, even though it's a Joss Whedon creation. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the best thing ever, but I wasn't really keen on Firefly. Dollhouse started off well though. I thought it was really entertaining, and I still love Eliza Dushku.

Dollhouse was shown on the Sci-Fi channel. I don't think all that many people have that channel in the UK, so I don't know if it will become popular here. Possibly no one I know will watch it.

Plumbing Terror

Two nights ago, at 10 in the evening, I turned on the hot tap in the kitchen. Then it got stuck. It wouldn't go off. Nothing I could do would make the tap turn off.

This was a problem. The hot tap comes from the gas boiler, so the gas was going as well, heating up the water. Which, I could see immediately, would swiftly lead to overheating - gas explosion - entire block of flats destroyed - Millar lost in tragic household accident - Buffy videos scattered over wide area - couldn't find enough of his body to give him a proper burial - identified by dental records - sequel to Lonely Werewolf Girl never completed - weeping crowds at memorial service - and all in all, this was quite worrying.

I couldn't find the stopcock to turn off the water. It did strike me, after a while, to turn the gas off at the mains. Though even that was worrying, and again made me fear for gas explosions. Everything to do with the gas heating boiler makes me think of gas explosions. (In a previous flat, the pilot light used to go off. Pressing the button to light it again, I was always nervous, and expected the worst.)

After the gas was off I called an emergency plumber. I was quite surprised at myself for being organised enough to do this. And, afterwards, rather perturbed at the huge expense. These people don't come cheap. Still, he did arrive, around midnight, and managed to turn the tap off.

All in all, this was an unhappy experience. Have abandoned all thoughts of writing, and will lie on the couch reading comics.

I have new Buffy comics. But I'm not quite satisfied with these. I also have a big bundle of manga, and much of this manga is full of great art, wit, invention, humour and so on. But the Buffy comics… well, they're just comics really. They don't really match up to how great the TV series was, and they're not nearly as entertaining as some of my manga.

Dollhouse, Joss Whedon's latest TV show, is starting in Britain next Tuesday. It stars Eliza Dushku, who was Faith in Buffy. I was a big fan of Faith, so I'm looking forward to watching this.